After Life

A freed federal prisoner recounts how she got in--and out. Johnson was born in Mississippi, one of nine children who lived in a sharecropper's shack: "No matter where I was situated," she writes, "I couldn't toss or turn. We fit snugly together and dared not move until the next day, when the sun's rays came through the poorly insulated windows and warmed us." Her parents aspired to better things, though, and having secretly built a home in a town 10 miles away--secretly to avoid angering the white farm owner in those last days of Jim Crow--they moved. Johnson was a motivated, smart student who got pregnant as a sophomore in high school; she kept up with her education all the same, eventually getting a job as a secretary. A too-good-to-be-true scenario unfolded when she was recruited to act as a relayer of messages between customers and a drug ring--and then was arrested in a major sting operation. "I didn't know this at the time," she writes, "but whenever someone is up on drug charges, cooperating witnesses frequently jump in on that case to reduce their own sentences." Promoted from go-between to ringleader as a result of others' testimony, Johnson was sentenced, under mandatory guidelines, to life in a federal penitentiary--first California, meaning that her family could not afford to visit, and later in Texas and Alabama. She made good use of her prison time, writing religious plays, being cheerfully helpful, and steering clear of trouble--all qualities that helped bring her case to the attention of Kim Kardashian, who in turn put her husband, Kanye West, on it, using his connections: "I know Kanye had opened the door for my release through his support of President Trump." Freed last year after serving "twenty-one years, seven months and six days," she has since become an advocate for prisoners' rights, "fighting for those I left behind." A moving, inspirational story that makes a powerful argument for sentencing reform.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)

May 1, 2019
In June 2018, after Kim Kardashian West lobbied him, President Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother sentenced to life in prison without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug conviction. Johnson, a mother of five who became pregnant for the first time at age 14, served nearly 22 years behind bars. Despite the happy ending, this powerful memoir is heartbreaking. Among other things, Johnson missed her beloved mother's funeral. With help from faith-based veteran writer French, Johnson notes that the U.S. leads the world in incarceration rates, with five percent of the global population but a quarter of its prisoners. Johnson was no saint, but she criticizes her judge for making her sound like El Chapo. In prison, she turns over a new leaf, wearing a Christ is counting on you necklace, working with chaplains, maintaining a perfect record, and leading theatrical productions. The book covers her entire life, including what it's like to get out and experience GPS for the first time. With a foreword by Kardashian, Johnson's story will certainly generate buzz.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)